thursday 12th june
7.00 pm ‘Russia Dying’
New versions of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
and Alexei Arbuzov's The Promise
OFF THE MANTLE # 10 The First City Theatre Readings

To celebrate its tenth Off The Mantle reading, The
First City Theatre Foundation picks scenes from two
recent rewritings of classic plays from the Russian
theatre. The first is American playwright David
Mamet’s adaptation of Chekhov’s masterpiece, The
Cherry Orchard. Audacious and consistently
arresting, Mamet’s version blows a gust of fresh air
into this classic. Similarly, Nick Dear’s striking
adaptation of The Promise brings out the
lyrical subtleties of Alexei Arbuzov’s original play
from the 60s – a powerfully historic and ironic
drama set amidst the post-war reconstruction in
Russia.

thursday 26th june
7.00 pm ‘The Laramie Project’
a play by Moises Kaufman
OFF THE MANTLE # 11 The First City Theatre Readings

The
Laramie Project
was devised and written by New York's Tectonic
Project Theatre group in the aftermath of the brutal
murder of Mathew Shepard, a gay student in Laramie,
Wyoming. Members of the group travelled to Laramie
shortly after the incident and conducted over 200
interviews with the town people. The play draws on
these interviews, the company members' own journal
entries and published news reports, virtuously
determined to find light in an event of harrowing
darkness. The First City Theatre Foundation reads
selections from this deeply moving work of theatre
journalism